Sebastian Vettel made it four wins in a row in a season for the first time in his career as he increased his lead over Fernando Alonso to 13 points in the Formula One world championship.

But it was a wonderful piece of damage-imitation by Alonso, who got among the Red Bulls and kept his chances alive by overtaking the Red Bull of Mark Webber to take second place, even though the Australian appeared to have a KERS problem.

Vettel led from lights out and the only small doubt about his 26th career victory was when the front of his car started to make contact with the ground and send sparks flying.

Lewis Hamilton, who started third, came fourth and was closing on Webber at the end of the race. But the result merely confirmed what we already knew – that the battle for the title is a two-horse race.

It was another desperately disappointing weekend for Mercedes, who did not score a single point – Michael Schumacher got a puncture on the second lap and Nico Rosberg finished 11th.

Vettel, who is now just one win behind Sir Jackie Stewart total of 27 victories, is already a firm favourite in India after his triumph here last year. He said: "It's been an incredible two years, to come here and win twice. It's a very special grand prix and I like the flow of it."

The team principal Christian Horner said: "It was a fantastic performance. Seb drove a brilliant race. A lot of long hours have been worked at the factory at Milton Keynes. We've just got to keep pushing."

Vettel has now led every lap of the last three races, the first time that has happened since Ayrton Senna achieved the feat in 1989.

But the most memorable move was made by Alonso, and it came on the very first lap as he moved from fifth on the grid and flew past both on the back straight.

Alonso said: "The team did well and we did everything we could. We need to bring a few new things to Abu Dhabi but here we did everything we could. Now we need to make a step forward."

It was soon obvious that the McLarens were a second a lap slower than the Red Bulls. And with tyre strategy a less important factor on this low-wear track it was always going to be raw speed that decided the outcome of the afternoon.

McLaren never really had that and Jenson Button followed Hamilton home in fifth place.